1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mechanism for loading a disk-shaped storage medium into a housing through an opening and for ejecting the disk-shaped storage medium from that housing through that opening, that is, a loading/ejection mechanism, and a disk device and a disk autochanger having that loading/ejection mechanism.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are a great variety of disk-shaped storage media on the market. Below, specific types of these, that is, CDs and MDs, will be used as examples for the explanation. CDs and other disk-shaped storage media (hereinafter simple referred to as “disks” in some cases) are usually loaded into a disk player of an audio system etc. to provide the user with music. In this case, if the display player is a disk autochanger, it stores a plurality of disks in its housing and automatically selects one disk at a time in a preferred order so as to provide the user with music.
In this way, to play music from a CD etc., a disk player or a disk autochanger is essential. In this case, the disk player etc. is defined in shape by its housing. It requires an opening for inserting and taking out disks to and from the housing and a disk loading/ejection mechanism provided near it.
FIG. 14 is a view of an example of a general disk loading/ejection mechanism and a disk device provided with the same.
In the figure, the disk device 1 has a disk loading/ejection mechanism 2 for loading a disk D into the housing 4 (IN) or for ejecting it from the housing 4 (OUT). This disk loading/ejection mechanism is provided near an opening 3 formed at part of the housing 4 and is for example comprised of a loading/ejecting roller 2a and a support plate 2b paired with this.
Each disk D loaded from the opening 3 by the disk loading/ejection mechanism 2 into the housing 4 is stored in a disk holding member 5. Note that this figure shows a disk device 1 constituted by a disk autochanger. There are six disk holding members 5 for hold six stacked disks in the illustration.
When one of the six stacked disks D is selected, a separating means (not shown) is inserted between the holding member 5 storing the selected disk D and an adjoining holding member 5 to push the two apart. A playback (recording) pickup is inserted between them for playing back or recording on the disk.
FIG. 15 is a plan view showing the configuration of the main parts of FIG. 14 in a simplified manner.
In FIG. 15, the disk loading/ejection mechanism 2, housing 4, and disk holding members 5 shown in FIG. 14 are shown simply with the disk D being taken out. Note that to facilitate understanding, parts which are originally not visible are also all drawn by solid lines.
As clear from the following explanation, the point of the disk loading/ejection mechanism 2 in the disk device 1 according to the present invention is that the loading/ejection direction of the disk D is not straight as shown by the arrow A in FIG. 15, but is offset as shown by the arrow B of the figure.
Note that as known art where the direction of transport of the disk D is partially not straight, there is Japanese Patent Publication (A) No. 2001-76408.
FIGS. 16A and 16B are a perspective view and plan view of the device disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication (A) No. 2001-76408.
Referring to FIGS. 16A and 16B, according to Japanese Patent Publication (A) No. 2001-76408, there is provided a data storage medium drive device where even if part of a small sized data storage medium happens to fall inside from the opening of a loading tray, it will not be caught up in the internal mechanism and can be reliably unloaded and ejected. The configuration and effects are as follows.
A guide member 103 is formed at a position of an offset side 102a of an opening 102 of a loading base 101. Due to this, when moving in the unloading direction, even if a small sized optical disk D would be liable to fall into the space between a loading tray 104 and a receiving surface 105 of the loading base 101 from the offset side 102a of the opening 102, in the process of moving in the unloading direction, the falling side of the optical disk will run up against the guide member 103 and forcibly be moved toward the center, therefore the disk D will be able to be made to move in the ejection direction in a more horizontal state along the medium tray surface. Due to this, the disk D will not be caught up in the gears and other internal mechanisms of a gear unit 106 and will be able to be reliably ejected.
As shown in the figures, Japanese Patent Publication (A) No. 2001-76408 discloses changing the direction of transport of the disk D from a straight direction near the opening 102 toward the center as shown by D′ at the time of ejection of the disk D.
FIGS. 17A and 17B are views for explaining the problems to be solved by the invention. FIG. 17A corresponds to FIG. 15
The disk device 1, for example, the disk autochanger, is comprised of a large number of complicated component parts, The housing 4 shown in FIGS. 16A and 16B, while not shown, actually has these component parts fit inside it.
This large number of component parts is arranged in spaces other than the locations of the disk holding members 5, the disks D, and the playback (recording) pickup PU in FIG. 14.
Here, referring to FIG. 17A, the spaces S1, S2, S3, and S4 are shown. These spaces S1 to S4, as clear from the figure, are dispersed in the four directions. Further, they have small areas. Therefore, when laying out the component parts in the housing, consideration restrictions are imposed. Accordingly, a certain degree of freedom of layout is lost. This in turn obstructs the reduction of size of the disk device 1.
In view of these problems, the present assignee previously proposed the layout shown in FIG. 17B. That is, it proposed to shift the disk holding members 5 and the loading/ejection mechanism 2 from the center of the disk device 1 to either the left or right side (in the figure, the right side).
Due to this, the spaces S1 and S2 and the spaces S3 and S4 shown in FIG. 17A become the space “S1+S2” and the space “S3+S4” of FIG. 17B. By enabling such combined large spaces to be secured in this way, the degree of freedom of layout is improved.
According to the layout of FIG. 17B, however, the opening 3 through which the disk D is inserted and taken out is naturally shifted in position from the center to one side (right side). This first of all causes the problem of poor user friendliness and second causes the problem of an odd feeling in the design as viewed from the front of the disk device 1.